My housemate's from Lithgow and I was happy to hear her family was safe although a lot of people have evacuated. Luckily the westerlies are generally pushing it away from town, it seems only the east side as been affected.

Also heard that people have been evacuated from Mt Vic as there's another fire on the Mt York peninsula. It seems smaller than the Lithgow fire.

Glenn Singleman pulled out of his headline talk at Adventure Time tonight to defend his house.

Looks like the Clarence crags will have been torched already. Freezer, Cosmic, & Dam Cliffs. The Wollangambe has been burnt as well, so that's most of the popular Mt Wilson Canyons. Mt Wilson itself and south isn't marked as burnt, so hopefully Bowen's Creek will be ok.

Perhaps this is stating the obvious, but the Blue Mountains National Park is entirely closed until further notice because of the fires. While some crags aren't in the NP, this is not the best weekend for a climbing trip in the blues.

My advice from MV is that the RFS has been bombing that area where it got through, the GWH is open again at MV pass which is a hopeful sign but i will be trimming back trees even more at my place tomorrow or sunday!

Official update is that the fire has NOT crossed the great western highway. However it does say that it's burning in the Kanimbla Valley, so I can only assume they mean in Hartley Vale to the north of Mitchels Ridge/Victoria Pass.

I get the feeling the person doing the updates isn't quite clued in to the local geography. Earlier today an update said it was burning in the Megalong, which was clearly wrong, and they've had to clarify that the fire's nowhere near Blackheath.

Have been looking around doing some sight seeing. As at 3pm Noisy Place, Zap, Bardens and everything around to masterplan was not burnt and N.W's werent threatening these crags but just as I left the back burn at Mt Vic Pass (the only fire that has potential to seriously effect me at Piddo) trucks moved accross the field and lit one up under noisy place crag so that kind of changes the whole situation. Consider the County, Freezer, Colliery etc totally scorched. Everything over there is ablaze, as is Ikara, Victoria Land, Little River and soon to be Hanging rock. Probably Pierces will go. Great opportunity to get everything done that the npws dont allow. luckily that doesnt include crags west of Mt Vic otherwise Im outta here!!!!!

For interest of climbing safety.
What does a hot fire so to sandstone, granite and basalt.
Also what about bolts, loose rock etc.
I guess that fire doesn't burn up a sizable cliff if thete is no vegetation but interested to know.
Cheers

On 22/10/2013 skegly wrote:>For interest of climbing safety. >What does a hot fire so to sandstone, granite and basalt. >Also what about bolts, loose rock etc.

I have seen exfoliated granite after bushfires, where flakes etc expand in the heat and crack off.

>I guess that fire doesn't burn up a sizable cliff if thete is no vegetation but interested to know.>Cheers

I used to think that too, but after observing the major fires at Mt Buffalo (2002, 2005) from a safe distance, I saw that the flames that started at the base of major clifflines easily rose up to three times the height of the cliff during flare-ups.
I also heard of accounts by the pilots whose job it was to water bomb the flames to save the chalet etc, that they observed burning limbs as thick as your arm and as long as your body in those updrafts...

I used to think that if I was caught on the Nth wall during a bushfire that I'd probably be OK if high enough. I now realise that I'd be toasted to a crisp in that situation if the bushfire is big enough.

On 22/10/2013 IdratherbeclimbingM9 wrote:>On 22/10/2013 skegly wrote:>>For interest of climbing safety. >>What does a hot fire so to sandstone, granite and basalt. >>Also what about bolts, loose rock etc.>>I have seen exfoliated granite after bushfires, where flakes etc expand>in the heat and crack off.
Yea I guess since granite was formed by slow cooling it would cause cracks to form if hot enough and flakes to expnd off.>>>I guess that fire doesn't burn up a sizable cliff if thete is no vegetation>but interested to know.>>Cheers>>I used to think that too, but after observing the major fires at Mt Buffalo>(2002, 2005) from a safe distance, I saw that the flames that started at>the base of major clifflines easily rose up to three times the height of>the cliff during flare-ups. >I also heard of accounts by the pilots whose job it was to water bomb>the flames to save the chalet etc, that they observed burning limbs as>thick as your arm and as long as your body in those updrafts...>>I used to think that if I was caught on the Nth wall during a bushfire>that I'd probably be OK if high enough. I now realise that I'd be toasted>to a crisp in that situation if the bushfire is big enough.
You would not want to be in a hanging ledge at least.

I suppose basalt would be ok due to cooling rapidly in its formation. At least it doesn't crack in the fire for a hungi.

I am interested in what it would/is doing to blueies sand stone. Would it bake it hard and /or weaken it. Also when metal expands then shrink wouldn't that make a bolt loose or weak?